Kineticons: Using Iconographic Motion In Graphical User Interface Design

Icons in graphical user interfaces convey information in a mostly universal fashion that allows users to immediately interact with new applications, systems and devices. In this paper, we define Kineticons - an iconographic scheme based on motion. By motion, we mean geometric manipulations applied to a graphical element over time (e.g., scale, rotation, deformation). In contrast to static graphical icons and icons with animated graphics, kineticons do not alter the visual content or "pixel-space" of an element. Although kineticons are not new - indeed, they are seen in several popular systems - we formalize their scope and utility. One powerful quality is their ability to be applied to GUI elements of varying size and shape - from a something as small as a close button, to something as large as dialog box or even the entire desktop. This allows a suite of system-wide kinetic behaviors to be reused for a variety of uses. Part of our contribution is an initial kineticon vocabulary, which we evaluated in a 200 participant study. We conclude with discussion of our results and design recommendations.